


Mother's Day

by DangerRollins



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Gen, Mother's Day, Mother-Son Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-14
Updated: 2018-05-14
Packaged: 2019-05-07 02:24:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14661393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DangerRollins/pseuds/DangerRollins
Summary: Carl wants to show Michonne how much she really means to him.





	Mother's Day

"Dad?" Carl sighed, plopping down on the couch. "Can I talk to you about something important?"

"Of course," Rick nodded, his eyes shifting from the TV to Carl. Carl was silent for a moment, clearly trying to figure out how to say what he wanted to say. "Michonne has been with us for a few years now and...Now you guys are together and she's like my best friend and—And I never told her before but she...Well, she's kind of like...A mother to me." Carl gulped, his cheeks reddening as he looked down to avoid Rick's burning gaze. "I don't know if that's weird or if she thinks of me like a son—"

"She does. She does think of you like a son," Rick smiled.

"Right," Carl muttered before clearing his throat. "Things have been crazy lately, you know, dealing with Negan and all. Nobody's had a chance to catch a break, especially not you and her. I know she's been really stressed and everything and I wanted..." Carl stopped and eyed Rick, looking for a sign that it was alright to keep going. Rick nodded at him and he continued. "I wanted to do something nice for her and something that'd let her know how I feel about her. Like...Mother's Day. It's summer, so Mother's Day would've happened around this time anyway. Maybe it's stupid—"

"It's not stupid," Rick shook his head, reaching out to stroke Carl's hair. "It's thoughtful. Thank you for thinking of her like that. I think if anything's gonna cheer her up and take some stress off of her, it'll be spending time with you and Judy and celebrating her relationship with y'all."

Carl nodded, a large grin replacing his worried expression. "What should we do for her?"

"Well, that's up to you." Rick smiled. "Whatever you do, it'll  
mean everything to her."

Carl hummed as he leaned back on the couch and thought about it. He had a lot of ideas, but none of them were good enough for celebrating Michonne. This had to be big and special, and it had to be something that she'd genuinely love.

He'd have to go all out.

***  
Two days later, Carl was running around the house like a chicken with its head cut off. He had a lot to get done, and he needed to work fast. His dad and Michonne would be here in less than thirty minutes and there was still plenty to do.

"Thanks again for the balloons, Enid," He called as he entered the kitchen. Enid had been at their house all day, blowing the green balloons up until she was close to passing out. "I owe you big time!"

"I like Michonne," Enid shrugged even though he couldn't see her. "She's nice and she gets you under control when you start to become too much of an asshole. **I** owe **her** big time for that."

Carl rolled his eye as he grabbed a bowl and began pouring the macaroni and cheese into it. There weren't that many options when it came to cooking, but he worked with what he had. It would've been fairly easy to make some spaghetti, but he'd sworn that food off since Negan's last visit. Instead, he'd decided to make some macaroni and cheese with bacon bits sprinkled in it, and he'd gotten Carol to make some casserole he didn't know the name of along with a big apple pie. He'd been a little afraid to ask for her help with something like this because they didn't talk all that much and she was a real tough lady who kind of scared him, not to mention the fact that she'd had to suffer through losing her daughter, Sophia. He thought she might get mad at him for showing up on her doorstep like some kind of sad puppy dog, begging her to do something for him despite the fact that they rarely interacted, but her reaction was the complete opposite of what he'd been expecting.

She'd been excited to help out and glad that he'd asked her instead of someone else. For the most part, her innocent and eager housewife act was just that, an act, but she really did enjoy cooking and she'd had a few recipes she wanted to try to master anyway.

She'd invited Carl in, eyes crinkling as she grinned and asked him what he wanted her to make, and he'd told her to do something simple that wouldn't take too much of her time but would still be delicious.

He stayed there while she baked the casserole and the pie and they actually talked for the majority of the time that he was there. He even apologized for when he was younger and basically told her she was stupid because of her religion, and she laughed it off, obviously over it.

Carl learned while he was there that Carol was not half bad. She was actually really funny, and kind of cool too. When he was leaving, she told him to come by and visit her again soon because she'd genuinely enjoyed his company, and he was sure that he'd do just that.

"You almost done, Jud?" Carl asked as he sat the bowl down on the table. He grinned, ruffling her hair as he stared down at her work. She'd drawn Michonne a pretty picture, stick figures which were obviously meant to be their little family, and a dog because she'd seen one once in her coloring book and now she was old enough to realize she wanted one.

Judith nodded and looked at Carl, shoving his hand away from her head and sticking her tongue out at him before giggling. Carl chuckled as he looked down at his own drawing. At first, he'd felt a little stupid for drawing a card for her like he was five, but it's not like he could've gone to the store and bought one, so it was really his only option. Enid had hit him over the head and told him to stop being stupid as he expressed his doubts to her, and then she'd thrown a box of crayons at his face before storming off to get him a few pieces of paper, so it was decided.

Carl's picture, just in his humble opinion, was better than Judith's. He'd taken the time to draw Michonne's name in big bubble letters, decorating each one differently. He'd drawn stars, hearts, and dots in some of the letters, and he'd filled some in with drawings of katanas too. Around the letters, he wrote things that she'd said to him, things that had meant a whole lot.

On the back of the card, he wrote until his fingers started cramping. He wrote as small as he could and still almost completely filled the page. He wasn't so good at saying important things out loud, but he was good at writing them.

He really hoped that she'd enjoy this. He'd done practically everything he could to make it special, and he hoped it'd be good enough. He wished he could take her out to eat or book her a spa day or buy her an expensive gift, but that was no longer the world that they were living in so he just had to do what he could.

"Alright, last balloon's done," Enid sighed, walking into the kitchen. "You better save me a plate or I'm gonna kick your ass, Grimes."

"I'll save you some scraps, Enid." Carl smirked.

Enid rolled her eyes as she slapped his shoulder and the. Rubbed Judith's hair down. "I'm gonna get out of here, they'll be here soon. Do not forget to save me a plate."

She was gone after that and Carl was left alone with his thoughts, his worries getting the best of him. He didn't know why he was so damn nervous. It's not like Michonne was the type of woman to throw a temper tantrum if she didn't get what she wanted, and he was sure she'd be thankful that he'd even made the effort to do something like this for her, but still. He wanted her to love this.

Plus, this was the first time he was really making it clear to her that she was like a mother to him. Sure, they'd both grown closer in recent years and she'd taken on the role of mother, protecting him and giving him advice and just...loving him, but they'd never really talked about it, and he'd never told her how important she was to him.

What if it freaked her out? What if she didn't want him thinking of her like that? She didn't give birth to him, he's not her responsibility, what if it's just too much for her? What if she needs a break?

"Door:"

Carl blinked as he looked at Judith. She looked at him as if he was dumb and pointed to the door. He looked at it and noticed that the doorknob was jiggling. He gasped before standing up quickly and going to open it.

Taking on last deep breath, he swung the door open and smiled nervously at Michonne and his dad. If Rick didn't already know what Carl was up to, he would've been skeptical of his behavior. He looked as if he was guilty of doing something sneaky, or maybe like he broke a valuable vase. Rick chuckled as Michonne eyed the boy. "What did you do?" She questioned, her voice soft but stern. Carl smirked, stepping to the side to let them in. "Nothing bad, I promise."

Michonne gasped as she stepped inside the house. The living room was filled with what seemed to be Enid's balloons, and it was actually really pretty. They were spread around seemingly at random, and a few were taped to the wall.

Rick patted Carl's shoulder gently before deciding it'd be best to let them talk for a few minutes alone and stepping around then to head toward the kitchen where Judith was still working tirelessly in her drawing. She called out to him upon seeing him and held her arms out so that he could pick her up, which he did, smiling softly.

"What is all this?" She asked, looking at him again. He gave her a shy smile before shrugging. "I know you've been really stressed lately, and I wanted to do something special for you. You deserve to have a good day! I told dad that I wanted to celebrate you and the fact that you're in my life, and I thought that maybe It could be like a little Mother's Day celebration, because you—You're like a mom to me, Michonne, and I appreciate you being there for me whenever I need you. You've helped me through a lot, and I owe a lot of who I am today to my dad, but I owe a lot of that to you too. I've never told you how much I appreciate you and how much you mean to me and I figured that I needed to fix that. I hope this isn't weird or—"

"Thank you, Carl," Michonne's voice trembled as she pulled him in for a tight hug. Carl had always been thoughtful, but she hadn't expected him to ever do something like this, and she could practically feel her heart growing five sizes larger as she thought about the fact that he'd taken the time to plan out a whole day for her. "I'm glad you think of me that way because you're like my son. I always wanted to be a mother and when Andre got taken away from me, I thought that that part of my life was gone. I thought I'd never get the chance to love anyone else again the way I loved him, but then you came along. I'm so proud of you, Carl. Thank you for letting me be apart of your life, and allowing me to watch you grow into such an amazing young man. You went from being a badass kid to a badass man right in front of my eyes." She laughed tearfully before finally pulling away from him.

He grinned, happy to see that he was worried for nothing. "How could I be anything but badass when I was raised by Rick Grimes and Michonne?"

"Language, Carl!" Rick called from the kitchen.

Carl rolled his eyes and Michonne giggled as she wrapped an arm around him and lead them to the kitchen. "Is that apple pie I smell?"


End file.
